Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"

A/N: So there's going to be one more chapter… no, there's not. This is the last chapter but it just seems like that's how all of my Author's Notes have gone for this story. I saw no reason to break tradition with this one. This chapter is fairly long (not "Story of Us" long mind you, but long for this story) but I was determined not to split it again. Thank you to everyone who has read/followed and big thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys helped keep me motivated more than you know. As I've said before, the plan is now to finish "Keeping the Creed" and then get back to my more open ended stories. Hope everyone enjoys the finale.

Christmakkuh in New York Part 6

Quinn had never really been one for PDA. She had much preferred to keep her private life private, behind closed doors so to speak, so for her to not only be kissing in public, in a semi-crowded place with a camera firing away, but for her to be doing so with Rachel, her best friend on their first date no less, it was more than a little surprising to her. She knew why she'd done it though. She'd seen the trepidation in Rachel's face when Marcus suggested that they kiss for the camera. She knew that Rachel wasn't sure where Quinn stood with regards to this burgeoning relationship, so Quinn wanted to assure Rachel that she was indeed having a great time, so she'd kissed her before Rachel could even ask if it was okay that they could.

She wasn't sure why they were still going at it a couple of minutes later other than because kissing Rachel felt wonderful. Like, seriously, it was the best thing ever. Previously when Quinn had kissed people her mind had always been on over drive, thinking about what to do, what it meant, and when to stop it. All she could think about now was the sensation of Rachel's soft, full lips against hers… and warmth. It was very cold outside and Rachel's mouth was warm. Rachel's breath was very warm against her cold skin which was suddenly causing another type of warmth in Quinn. She brushed Rachel's hair back behind her ear nominally to make sure that Marcus got a good unobstructed picture of them, but really she just wanted to touch Rachel more, granted it was through her gloves, but still. Quinn's fingers found the back of Rachel's neck while her thumb brushed across her cheek just below her cheekbone.

"Okay, so it's definitely a date," Antonio said mostly to Marcus.

"Uh, yeah," Marcus agreed, "and one that destined for the bedroom from the looks of things."

"Marcus, shhh, don't go putting that kind of pressure on them like that," Antonio admonished.

But the damage was already done, Rachel heard and her lips drew tight as she pulled back from Quinn. Quinn quickly shot her a look to try to convey that she didn't necessarily agree with Marcus but she wasn't sure that Rachel got her message across because she still looked tense and anxious. "Thank you very much for helping us," Rachel said to the men.

Antonio said, "He didn't mean anything by that, honey. He just assumes that everyone is as sexual as he is."

"It's fine," Rachel said tersely before changing the subject abruptly. "Would you like us to take your picture? Quinn is a very talented photographer in her own right."

Marcus handed the camera back to Quinn and said, "Ah, we wouldn't want to impose."

"It's no problem," Quinn said, "It's not an imposition. I love taking pictures."

"And if it were," Rachel added, "then we've already imposed on your night so let us replay that favor."

The men reluctantly accepted and Rachel had them stand just so while Quinn snapped a few pictures. They shared a much more chaste kiss of which Quinn took a few pictures. Rachel got Marcus' e-mail address and not long after Quinn and Rachel were back in the elevator. "It's too bad the Rainbow Room closed we could eat while we're here," Quinn said.

"I'd actually had somewhere else in mind for dinner, somewhere you absolutely will not want to miss out on. It's so incredibly, perfectly you," Rachel said, "However our reservations aren't for a while yet. Are you hungry?"

"Um, a little," Quinn said, "Not like majorly. I might grab something to tide me over. Rumor has it that there's a Jamba Juice in the building. Want to grab a smoothie?"

"Sounds great," Rachel beamed at her.

One interminably long elevator ride and five minutes waiting in line at Jamba Juice later, Quinn and Rachel had procured a non-dairy Strawberry Surf-Rider smoothie to share so as not to fill up before dinner. They walked around the plaza a bit more with Rachel once again clinging to Quinn's right arm. She looked up, something suddenly occurring to her, "Quinn?"

"Hmmm?" Quinn replied her mouth full of straw and smoothie.

"Certain people have complained in the past about my being clingy and needy to excess," Rachel said, "Will you please tell me if I am being that way to you?"

"I will," Quinn said swallowing, "but I don't anticipate that happening."

"You don't?"

Quinn shook her head, "Understand that I don't mean this in a bad way, but you were pretty clingy and needy with me before all this started and it wasn't a problem."

"How could you not mean that in a bad way?"

"Because I don't necessarily think they're bad things," Quinn said, "What the world calls clinginess, is really just wanting to be around someone you care about and I like being around you. I'm moving, in part, so that I can be around you more often. I doubt I'm going to get tired of being around you any time soon."

"Awww," Rachel said squeezing Quinn's arm.

"Plus we wasted three years in high school fighting over stupid boys that weren't remotely worthy of either of us and someday very soon you're going to be very busy with your career and hopefully I won't just be sitting by the phone waiting for a callback myself, so I think we should enjoy as much of this time that we have together as we can."

"God, you sweet talker," Rachel sighed.

X X X X X

"How is it exactly that we have the same size feet?" Quinn asked. The girls had finally made their way to the skating rink and were in the process of changing into the skates that Rachel had been carrying around in her bag for almost an hour now. Rachel had already secured her skates, pink with her signature gold stars, while Quinn was lacing up a plain white pair that Rachel had brought for her.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"I mean I'm at least four inches taller than you," Quinn replied, "Proportionally I should have bigger feet."

"Are you trying to imply that I have big feet?" Rachel smiled.

"Possibly, or that I have small feet. Although, I think a better question is why do you own two pair of ice skates? What were the odds that you would ever need both of them?"

"The white ones were a gift from my fathers, the pink ones from my Nana. I got them the same year and they were both just so pretty that I couldn't decide which to keep and which to return. As you've seen, I'm fairly inundated with gifts for the holidays and as such I didn't particularly need to return either of them so kept them both."

"And you brought them both with to New York?"

"No, the white ones were in Lima," Rachel said, "My fathers brought them here at my request." Quinn looked her with an arched eyebrow. "As you well know, ice skating in Rockefeller Plaza is a staple of Christmas in New York which you said you were eager to experience, so I was going to bring you ice skating whether it was a date or not."

"Okay, full disclosure, I haven't been ice skating since I was fairly young," Quinn said, "I think I was 10 or 11 the last time and I wasn't particularly good at it then so you may have to re-teach me how."

"Very well," Rachel said. She walked delicately out onto the ice taking a moment to be certain she had her balance before turning back to the gate and offering her hands out to Quinn. She accepted Rachel's hands as she took her first wobbly, tentative steps out onto the ice tightening her grip as she moved from concrete to the cold, slick rink. "Find your center of gravity," Rachel commanded. When she was sure that Quinn had her legs beneath her she gently pushed herself backwards which pulled her and Quinn out of the counterclockwise flow of traffic on the rink more towards the center which was less crowded. "You're doing very well, Quinn."

"Because I'm just standing here."

"Be that as it may, Quinn," Rachel said, "It's never a bad thing to be encouraging when teaching someone something." Quinn smiled while her eyes remained fixed on her own two feet. "I'm going to adjust our hands now so don't freak out."

Quinn took a deep breath and said, "Okay."

Rachel let go of the grip Quinn had on her left and steepled their hands together intertwining their hands, Quinn's white knuckles pointed at the sky. She then repeated the process her other hand. Now both pairs of joined hands were held aloft and for whatever reason, Quinn was feeling shaky legged. "Alright," Rachel said suddenly commanding Quinn's attention, "do you remember how to push yourself?" Quinn nodded quickly. "Okay, push us, and never fear I'll steer us away or stop us if get close to running into anyone else. Just focus on you." One more deep breath and Quinn pushed off with her right foot. She and Rachel began to slowly slide across the ice and a moment later Quinn pushed a little harder with her left foot. "Good," Rachel encouraged.

After she pushed off a couple more times, Quinn felt a sudden surge of confidence. She distinctly remembered this being much harder when she'd done it before, but then again when she was 10 or 11 she had still been awkward little Lucy. She hadn't been through years of gymnastics, ballet, cheerleading, and Glee Club. Quinn was considerably more graceful now than she had been then, plus Rachel was a far better teacher than had been her older sister Fran when she was little. "This is definitely a lot easier than I remember," Quinn said finally looking up from her feet.

"I knew you'd get it," Rachel said, "You're far too good a dancer and far too coordinated not to. All you needed was the confidence in yourself. Are you prepared to release your death grip on one of my hands and skate with me?"

Quinn and Rachel, still connected by one set of hands, slipped into the same counterclockwise circuit around the rink that most of the hundreds of other skater were making. The first couple of curves they came to took a bit of effort from Quinn to work out but she got it quickly and they soon fell into an easy pattern. When Quinn finally felt comfortable enough in her skating she looked over and said, "So that Marcus guy kind of freaked you out a little when he mentioned us ending up in bed together tonight, huh?"

"No… I mean, well, yes, but…" Rachel paused to get her thoughts in order. "It's got nothing to do with you. I'm not freaked out at the prospect of having sex with you. You obviously know that you're very attractive. I'm very attracted to you, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well, or else I'd have never asked you out. I think it was just someone who was a relative stranger being so blunt about things of a sexual nature. Obviously, Noah and Santana have said far, far more vulgar things, but I knew them, it was expected from them. I wasn't expecting it from him. It just caught me off guard is all."

"Okay, good to know," Quinn said, "I just wanted to let you know that I have no expectations of anything like that tonight. I was even going to volunteer to sleep in Kurt's bed for the next couple nights until he gets back."

"While I certainly appreciate your chivalrous offer, Quinn, I assure you that it is wholly unnecessary," Rachel said, "that is unless you're afraid that I'm going to in some way molest you in your sleep."

"You really couldn't molest me," Quinn said with a growing sly smile, "Molest implies that your actions would be in any way unwelcome."

"You're flirting with me again," Rachel said.

"Yeah, sorry," Quinn replied, "That one was a little on the perverted side."

"You can make it up to me," Rachel said, "Let's get off this Merry-Go-Round, get back out in the middle and you can dance with me."

"Anything you wish," Quinn smiled at her, "Provided you can show me how to dance on ice skates." Rachel quickly ran through how to slow dance on ice skates which wasn't really that much different than slow dancing normally is so Quinn picked it up with no trouble, although she was still happy to let Rachel, the more experienced skater and dancer, lead.

The girls danced silently for a long while. They fell into a pattern and eventually Rachel stopped leading resting her head on Quinn's shoulder instead and Quinn's mind drifted back to happy memories of the two of them cuddled up together on Rachel's couch watching movies and TV or listening to music. It then struck Quinn that this moment felt almost exactly the same (aside from the temperature difference), which was odd since she knew that she was harboring serious romantic feelings for Rachel at the moment and all the cuddling, the hand holding was supposed to be platonic, or at least she had thought it was at the time.

Had Rachel been right and they had been falling for each other over the last five months and Quinn not even noticed it? Or was Santana right and Quinn had wanted Rachel for years now? That didn't seem right to her. Objectively, she knew that she'd always thought Rachel was pretty and talented from the first time that they'd met, but she hadn't always wanted to be with Rachel. That had come much later. So it was probably Rachel who was right about them, and Quinn's feelings for Rachel had shifted so subtly over so long a period of time that she hadn't even realized it. That meant something, didn't it? It meant that their relationship was growing out from their friendship rather than eclipsing it. It meant that their friendship would be the basis of whatever came next. That thought made Quinn relax considerably about the risks that they were taking advancing their relationship. She relaxed and smiled and pressed a soft kiss against the top of Rachel's head. "Hey, Rach," she said softly.

"Hmm?" Rachel hummed against her upper chest.

"I just wanted to tell you, I'm really glad I said yes to tonight," Quinn said.

"Tonight's not over," Rachel replied as she lifted her head to look Quinn in the eye, "There's still dinner yet to come."

"I know," Quinn said, "and I'm sure it's going to be great, but I just wanted you to know that even if this was it, even if this was the end of the date, it would still be the best date I've ever been on."

"Is it too soon to ask for a second date?" Rachel asked with a smile.

Quinn smiled back and said, "Definitely not. What did you have in mind?"

"Well there's this sort of event in Times Square," Rachel said trying very hard not to laugh at herself, "I know there's supposed to be live music and some other stuff and there was something about a countdown and a ball. I wasn't very clear on the details but it's sometime next week and I was wondering if you'd go with me?"

"Well," Quinn said laughing at Rachel's silliness, "it sounds interesting. Get back to me with more details and a definite time and I'll say yes or no for certain, but right now I'll say definitely maybe."

X X X X X

At ten minutes to nine, Quinn and Rachel's taxi pulled up to the address that Rachel had supplied after a short stop-off at Rachel's to drop off their skates and Quinn's camera. Quinn looked at the sign over the front door and was momentarily confused. She had definitely never heard of this place before. "Baconalia?" Quinn questioned.

"Yes," Rachel said opening her door and climbing out of the cab, "as in, bacchanalia, a celebration in honor of the Greek god Bacchus."

"Rachel, is this a bacon themed restaurant?" Quinn said as she followed Rachel out of the cab.

"Did I or did I not say that our intended dining experience is incredibly and perfectly you?" Rachel said a very proud smile on her face at the look of stunned amazement on Quinn's.

"This is… this is incredible, Rach. I-I have no words," Quinn said as Rachel held the door open for her. They walked inside hand-in-hand. Rachel gave her name to the hostess and they were seated almost immediately. The place was busy but my no means crowded, presumably because it was Christmas Eve. After a quick once over the menu, Quinn looked across the table and said, "Rachel, what are you going to eat? Everything has bacon on it or in it."

"I checked ahead of time, of course," Rachel said, "and they do have a few cruelty free options." Rachel watched as Quinn's face lit up as she scanned the pork heavy menu at all the many and varied uses of bacon. If Rachel were completely honest with herself she was of two minds about coming here since she was a vegan and this place practically celebrated animal slaughter. On the other hand there was the look on Quinn's face, a look of sheer unadulterated delight, much of which Rachel knew to be the bacon but she quietly hoped that some of it had to do with Rachel bringing her here, with the date that Quinn had already called the best she'd ever been on.

Quinn let go of the menu with one hand and laid her arm across the table with her hand resting palm up. She wiggled her fingers silently beckoning for Rachel. A shy smile stretched across her face as Rachel quickly placed her hand in Quinn's. Both of them gripped the other tightly. It was the first time all night that they'd held hands without two pair of gloves between them. "Rachel, you're incredible. You know that?"

"Thank you," Rachel said softly, "You're pretty terrific yourself."

A minute later their server arrived, a tall, full figured brunette named Dina, and said, "Howdy, ladies. What can we get ya'll to drink?"

"Coffee," Rachel said, "with non-dairy creamer and a glass of water."

"Hot tea," Quinn said.

"All right," Dina said, "Do ya'll know what you want to eat or should I give you a minute?"

"I'm ready to order," Rachel said, "Quinn?"

"You go and I'll have made up my mind by the time you're done," Quinn said looking more intently at the menu now.

"Very well," Rachel said, "I'll have the Black Bean Burger with the Fakeon, and are the fries cooked in vegetable oil? I know most restaurants do but this place certainly begs the question."

"Yeah," Dina said, "Just potatoes in vegetable oil with a little salt. No animal products."

"Okay," Rachel said, "then I'll have that and a salad with vinaigrette dressing. Salad first please."

"And I'll have the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin cooked medium well with a loaded baked potato and a salad with the bacon ranch dressing. Salad first please." Dina quickly recited the girl's orders back to them and then went to get their beverages.

"Between this, Hanukkah Dinner last night, and all the Christmas candy that your dads were talking about the other night, I'm going to have to run about five miles to work all this off," Quinn said.

"Or you could pack up all of your belongings and move to a new city," Rachel said.

"Soooooo," Quinn drawled out.

"So?"

"I guess there's something we need to talk about since we've decided that we're going to continue dating," Quinn said, "Being out."

"What are your thoughts on the matter?" Rachel asked tentatively.

"I spent too much of my life trying to live up to other peoples' expectations," Quinn said, "and all it has ever done was make me miserable. I may not be racing home to write my mother an e-mail telling her that I'm dating a girl just because I don't want to hear about it from her. Beyond that I don't really care who knows. Plenty of people already do: your dads, Brit and San, Kurt will know the second he sees us which means that Blaine and Mercedes will know shortly after that. I have no interest in hiding."

"Good," Rachel said, "I feel the exact same way."

"Are you sure?" Quinn asked, "It could be detrimental to your career. I'm pretty sure the number of openly lesbian and bi-sexual actresses working steadily can be counted on both hands...or maybe even just one."

"It's different in the theater world," Rachel said, "Hollywood is a business. Theater is an art forum. It's much more accepting of the LGBT community than is the movie and TV industry. Even if it wasn't, I still wouldn't hide who I am and with whom I am involved. I was raised to be proud of who I am at all times. When my inevitable stardom comes, I won't take out an ad in Variety announcing our relationship or anything as dramatic as that, but I will be taking my beautiful girlfriend to events with me and if asked I will tell the truth about whom you are."

"Well, I know better than to argue with you when your mind is made up," Quinn said.

"As you should," Rachel smiled. Dina returned and brought them their drinks and told them their food would be ready in a few minutes before leaving them again. "So I didn't mean to make assumptions just then when I called you my girlfriend."

"It's okay," Quinn said, "I'm not scared of commitments or of labels. Although I think we should wait about a month or so to make it official."

"Okay," Rachel said clearly confused, "May I ask why?"

"The confluence of dates," Quinn said, "It's nothing to do with you or even us really. It's just that Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, your birthday, Christmas, and New Year's are all within like five weeks of each other. Throwing in our anniversary on top of that is too much."

"I see your point," Rachel said.

X X X X X

After the salads before the main course, Rachel excused herself to the restroom and Quinn fished out her cell phone to check the parade of messages that she'd been getting and ignoring all night. Most of them were just Merry Christmas messages from friends and family. There were a few of them from Santana all perverted in nature, mostly about tasting Rachel's Berry. She quickly and succinctly replied to the holiday well wishes, ignored Santana, and then when she was about done she got a message from Leah:

Leah: Merry Xmas, ex-roomie. :)

Quinn: Merry Christmas, Leah. You'll never guess where I am.

Leah: New York City. Damn I'm good at the guessing game.

Quinn: Dork. I'm at bacon restaurant. Bacon! Restaurant! :D

Leah: With Rachel?

Quinn: Yes, with Rachel. Amazingly enough they do actually have vegan bacon.

Leah: I'm honestly surprised that the Jewish Vegan would even agree to set foot in a place that focuses its menu on slaughtered pigs. Is she on brownies?

Quinn: No, we finished those off the other night, and you really should have warned her about what was in those btw.

Quinn: We're at the IHODP because she's trying to impress me.

Leah: IHODP? Why?

Quinn: International House of Dead Pigs. Because it's a date.

Leah: OMG! You FINALLY admit that you're dating? It's a Christmas Miracle!

Quinn: LOL, we're not dating. Yet. It's a date, our first in fact.

Leah: Really? Like seriously?

Quinn: Yes, really, although evidence suggests that I've been occupying space in a river in Egypt for some time now. Possibly since high school if some are to be believed though I don't know that I do.

Leah: Well, congratulations. It certainly took you two long enough.

Quinn: Thanks.

Leah: I'd ask if she was showing you a good time but I know you, you, her, and some cheesy movie on Netflix and you'd be happy

Quinn: Fact.

Leah: Okay, well, get back to your date Cleopatra.

Quinn: Okay, see you in a couple of days.

Leah: Peace out.

X X X X X

True to her word, Rachel forced Quinn to wait until they got all the way home before Quinn was allowed to kiss her because she refused to taste Quinn's "animal slaughter breath." In fact, she also required Quinn to brush her teeth and rinse with mouth wash. However, the second the mouth was in the sink, Rachel was on her once again. She broke off the kiss just long enough to say, "Mmmm, minty fresh," before resuming.

Before she even really knew what was hitting her Quinn was pressed up against the wall by the door. One of Rachel's hands was on the back of her neck pulling her down into the kiss; the other had a firm grip on Quinn's right hip. The passion pouring out of Rachel all of a sudden was entirely overwhelming to Quinn. She had only just started getting her head around the way kissing Rachel made her feel and now Rachel's tongue was in her mouth and Rachel's stomach was pressed against hers and Rachel's finger tips were creeping beneath the hem of her top. Quinn definitely didn't want to stop but she wasn't sure that this or what this was progressing towards was the best idea. She was having considerable difficulty reigning in her hormones, especially when Rachel kept giving out these little tiny moans.

First order of business, Quinn decided was to relocate. If she couldn't cool the situation down then at the very least, it wasn't going to happen in the bathroom… not the first time anyway. She groped blindly at the doorknob finally finding it on her fourth try. She pulled the door open and pushed herself off the wall. She also put some space between their bodies to try to combat total sensation overload and possibly regain her good judgment. Quinn placed a hand on either of Rachel's hips and guided them out of the bathroom and towards the living room. Rachel was having none of that, however, and used a combination of her deceptive strength and a surprise attack biting Quinn's bottom lip, which was totally cheating in Quinn's book, to drag them into the bedroom.

Quinn knew she had to act quickly because once they were in Rachel's bed and clothes started coming off and hands (and other parts) started touching things that her resolve would snap like a twig and if they were getting ahead of themselves like Quinn feared, then they could potentially screw up this whole thing. Just inside the bedroom door, Quinn managed to free her bottom lip and say, "Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, slow down. It's not a race."

"Sorry," she said in a voice so husky and full of lust that it make Quinn want to die a little, "I just, I just got so caught up in… well, you."

"I know," Quinn said, "and that's very flattering, but I want you to know that I don't expect anything to happen tonight. There's no pressure to rush things. I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves and do things we aren't ready for."

"I don't feel like you're pressuring me," Rachel said.

"What about you?" Quinn asked, "Do you feel like you're pressuring yourself?" Rachel looked at Quinn but didn't answer. "Look, if you are absolutely certain that you're ready for this and you want me, then, I'm all for it, but if you feel like you need to do this to prove something to me because you think I want it right now or whatever, then no."

"Are… are you sure?" Rachel asked in this tiny little sad voice that broke Quinn's heart.

"Oh, sweetheart, come here," Quinn said enveloping Rachel in a hug as her head dropped down to rest her forehead on Quinn's collarbone. "Sweetie, I'm not Finn. I'm never going to pressure you to do more than you're ready for because if you aren't ready, then neither am I, and I'm damn sure not Puck. I'm not going to break up with you because you aren't willing to move at my pace."

Rachel lifted her head and dabbed at her eyes, "I'm so sorry," she said, "That was very dumb of me to think that. I'm sorry that I thought so little of you."

"Baby, you've got nothing to be sorry about," Quinn said, "There's not a doubt in my mind that we'll get there, not one, and when we do I'm sure that it will be beautiful and amazing, but above all that, please remember that whatever else we are, whatever we're in the process of becoming, you're my best friend, Rachel. I don't want to do anything to ever mess that up. You're… you're like my person."

Rachel didn't seem to get the reference by the confused look on her face, "Explicate, please," she said.

"Not a fan of Grey's Anatomy, I take it?"

"I tried," Rachel said, "and I appreciated the drama, but there was an issue with the bodily fluids and surgery…" Rachel shuttered in Quinn's arms, "Couldn't do it."

"Fair enough," Quinn said, "Basically, it means that you're my other half, my right hand, you're the person I look for to always be there when I need support or a helping hand, the person I can always count on when I need them."

"Quinn, that's… that's maybe the nicest, most flattering thing anyone has ever said to me," Rachel was blushing hard. "As I now understand the definition of it, you are my person as well," she said, "so no sex tonight. Can we go back to making out, because that was pretty fun all on its own?"

Quinn smiled and said, "Absolutely."

December 31st, 2012

"You know," Kurt said, "not that it's not indescribably fun to watch you to do that while my beloved is snowed in back in Ohio, but I'm pretty certain that the tradition is for you to kiss at midnight, not to make out all night, before, during, and after midnight. I'm pretty sure that you aren't supposed to fifth wheel your best friend-slash-roommate all night, Ms Berry!"

"You're right," Rachel said breathlessly breaking away from Quinn, "He's right. We're being extremely rude. We should desist this temporarily and enjoy our dear friend Kurt's company not to mention the wonderful live music."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than the song ended and Ryan Seacrest was on stage with a microphone in hand, "All right, everyone, we're down to just over a minute to go so…"

"Fantastic," Kurt said, "one minute and I can begin the arduous journey back to the apartment so I can Skype with Blaine in the Columbus Airport. Just how I wanted to spend my first New Year's in New York."

"There's always next year, Kurt," Rachel said.

"And it will be your first New Year's in New York together," Quinn said, "He won't get snowed in anywhere because he'll already be here."

"Thirty seconds!" Seacrest shouted from the stage.

"Bah humbug," Kurt said crossing his arms.

"You know," Rachel said softly to Quinn, "If he's going to be Skyping all night with Blaine, then I see no reason we shouldn't go back to your lovely new place and celebrate the new year together."

"You mean?"

"I mean."

"TEN!"

"Are you sure?"

"NINE!"

"I'm sure."

"EIGHT!"

"No, but I mean are you sure?"

"SEVEN!"

"Quinn?"

"SIX!"

"Hmmm."

"FIVE!"

Rachel rocked up on her tip toes to whisper softly in Quinn's ear, "I want you, Quinn…"

"FOUR!"

"…so bad."

"THREE!"

"Rachel?"

"TWO!"

"Hmmm?"

"ONE!"

Quinn leaned in and crushed their lips together in a searing kiss cupping both of Rachel's cheeks in her hands. "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" There was a deafening cacophony of whistles and poppers and rattlers and noise makers of all kinds. Over it all they managed to hear Kurt scoff and say, "I'm leaving. I hope your lips don't get stuck together in this below freezing weather."

Rachel broke away from Quinn and watched him go, "Poor, Kurt."

"Blaine will be here by noon," Quinn said, "he'll forget all about him not being here now."

"All the more reason for me to not be home," Rachel said.

Quinn laughed, "So my place?" she asked taking Rachel's hand firmly in hers.

"Yes, please."

A/N: Once again, everyone thanks for reading. Feel free to leave me any final thoughts on the story and I'll see some of you on my other stuff.